1. Technical Field
Embodiments discussed herein pertain generally to data communication systems. More particularly, certain embodiments relate generally to a configurable transceiver circuit.
2. Background Art
Network communications have dramatically increased access to data, enabling larger and larger volumes of data to be transmitted. In order to facilitate the ever-increasing demand for data throughput, communications systems have had to progressively increase their bandwidth. For example, developers of Ethernet network technology have previously provided standards for transfer rates of 10 megabits/second, 100 megabits/second, and 1 gigabit/second. More recently, technology for 10 gigabit/second Ethernet communication has been widely adapted.
To support such higher bandwidth signaling, gigabit/second networks generally require optical fiber cabling, which provides several advantages over copper cabling. A fiber optic connection provides two functions: it couples a transmitter light signal produced by an emitter to the fiber optic cabling, and it provides a means for coupling a received light signal on the fiber optic cable to a receiving component, typically comprising a detector.
Notwithstanding the speed advantages of optical signaling, electrical communications via copper, twisted pair, coaxial cable or other such media—for various technical and/or economic reasons—continue to provide a relatively more efficient solution for many applications. Consequently, successive generations of consumer electronics continue to scale with respect to increasingly diverse communication and computing capabilities which, increasingly, include one or both of optical signaling capability and electrical signaling capability. As a result, there is an attendant increase in the need to provide components which are readily adaptable to support diverse signaling applications.